RBB assisted Aberdeen Journals and its lawyers during the appeal to the Competition Appeals Tribunal of the OFT’s decision that it had breached the Chapter II (abuse of dominance) provisions of the Competition Act 1998. The OFT had found that Aberdeen Journals had engaged in the predatory pricing of advertising space in its free weekly newspaper, the Herald & Post, with a view to forcing the exit of the Aberdeen & District Independent, another free weekly newspaper.

The main element of the case was consideration of whether free and paid-for newspapers formed part of the same relevant product market. To inform this assessment, RBB assembled invoice and other detailed evidence on advertising patterns in Aberdeen Journals’ free and paid-for newspapers and changes in those patterns over time. In particular, evidence on the responsiveness of advertising volumes in each newspaper to changes in the newspapers’ effective advertising rates was tested.

RBB also prepared analysis for the client on the relevant criteria for assessing alleged predation. That analysis considered the appropriate measure of the avoidable costs faced by the Herald & Post, and its role in defining the boundary between legitimate and anti-competitive pricing. In particular, in the free newspaper context, the distinction between measuring output (and potential output reductions) in terms of advertising space or circulation volumes was highlighted. The RBB analysis also considered the parameters of a legitimate response to inefficient entry.